


Burn Me

by RiiasShorts



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Actor Ben Solo, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Theatre, Broadway, Broadway References, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Meet-Cute, New York City, Pining, Prompt Fill, Romantic Comedy, Sound Designer Rey, Theatre, burn this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:28:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25458571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiiasShorts/pseuds/RiiasShorts
Summary: Rey never thought she'd be the person late to rehearsal on the first day. Thankfully, a tall, dark, and handsome stranger in the elevator helps save her the embarrassment.Turns out, said stranger is the lead in the show she's beginning rehearsals for, Burn This, and he looks good as fuck in a kimono.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Pale (Burn This)/Rey (Star Wars), Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 18
Kudos: 56





	Burn Me

**Author's Note:**

> based on a prompt from [ galacticidiots ](https://twitter.com/galacticidiots) on twitter: AU where Rey is the play’s sound engineer and every time Ben comes out in that robe during rehearsal she plays ‘Bow Chicka Wow WOW’ (to his eternal embarrassment)
> 
> warning: i'm a theatre kid and a sound designer, so i lowkey went off. i'll explain all the theatre terms used (i did try to limit how many, i swear) in the author's note at the end, and if anything else is unclear, just lmk and i'll explain
> 
> **preview/opening dates are based off of the irl production of "burn this" starring adam driver, and any other dates are based off of speculation using typical broadway timelines

EARLY FEBRUARY 2019

The first thing she ever learned in her first theatrical design class was that showing up late to your first rehearsal is a  _ great _ way to get on the production team’s good side. Yup. For sure. 

Which is why Rey is currently booking it across New York City to get to the  rehearsal hall by 9 AM.

She practically throws herself off of the subway and breaks into a near-run. The street goes by in a blur; all she can focus on are the addresses. She finally finds the building labeled with the right number, throws open the doors, dashes into the elevator, and absolutely  _ smashes _ the button for the twelfth floor. 

The elevator doesn’t move.

Then, and only then, does she remember the email she had received from the director a couple days prior about the pass she’d need to print and scan to get anywhere in the building.

She tears open her backpack, pulling out her folder and rummaging around for the slip of paper. Before she manages to find it, a hand extends over her head. There’s a beep, and the elevator doors close. They’re moving within seconds.

Rey scrambles to get her things packed away again. Once her bag is zipped, she looks up.

And up.

And up.

Her eyes finally reach his face, and he’s grinning at her. Rey blushes, feeling childish. 

Thank the gods, he’s the first one to speak up. “It looked like you were in a hurry, so I figured I’d help you out,” he says and shrugs. 

She smiles. “Yeah, thanks. I’m cutting it close for my first rehearsal.” Realizing she doesn’t actually know if she’s late or not, she glances nervously at her watch. 8:53, she’s fine.

“What do you do?” he asks. Then, “Sorry, but I don’t know your name.”

Holding a hand out for him to shake, she introduces herself. “I’m Rey, and I’m sound designer for  _ Burn This _ . You?” Being the behemoth he is, she wouldn’t be surprised if he was some snazzy set designer or something else physical. Then again, tech theatre is a male-dominated industry, so he could really do  _ anything _ .

“Ben,” he says, shaking her hand. “I’m actually in  _ Burn This _ . I’m Pale.”

She’s actually pretty shocked; for some reason, she didn’t take him as the acting type. “That’s awesome! Good to already know someone.”

Right as she finishes speaking, a chime sounds, and the elevator doors open. Together, they step into the industrial-looking hallway.  _ Burn This _ is the last door on the right, so they chat as they walk.

“I heard  _ Hamilton _ got a  concentric revolving floor installed here to rehearse on,” Rey says.

Ben’s eyes widen, then relax. “That sounds really cool, but when that’s your stage, it’s hard to rehearse on anything else.”

Nodding, Rey hums. “I guess. Still cool though, that they got it installed in a rental space.”

“Oh, for sure. I’m kind of glad we don’t have to work on a stage like that, though.”

Rey laughs. “Me too.”

They make it to the door, and Ben reaches for it before she has a chance. He opens it for her, gesturing for her to enter. She giggles and obliges.

Already in the room is most of the production team. Rose immediately wraps her in a hug, then Jannah and Kaydel.

“Hey, girlie!” Kaydel says, her voice awfully energetic for 9 AM. All four of them exchange hellos, and then an arm wraps around her from behind. Rey looks over her shoulder and sees Poe, complete with a cocky smirk, leaning against her. 

He grins down at her. “You girls ready to get this show on the road?” he asks. They all nod enthusiastically before a booming voice captures their attention.

“Alright, settle down, you all!”

Rey looks in the direction of the voice and sees Gwen Phasma standing at the door with a tablet in her hand. She’s nearly starstruck-- the woman is a stage management legend. It definitely helps that she towers over most of the  company , but she’s as talented as she is physically imposing. 

She continues, “Usually, you’d all  _ sign in _ , something I noticed none of you even thought to  _ try _ to do, but since this is day one, we’re going to call roll.”

Over the next minute, everyone pipes up when Gwen calls their names. At nine on the dot, a vision in black sweeps into the room. Gwen looks up.

“Ah, Bazine. Nice of you to join us,” she jabs, but the woman,  _ Bazine _ , just smiles.

“I’m on time,” she shrugs, holding up her phone. “9:00” shines brightly against her dark lock screen background.

A laugh bubbles from their little group. Even the director seems enthused. Gwen just rolls her eyes, then beckons Bazine to her. The two women kiss each other briefly on the cheek in greeting before Bazine joins the trio of cast members standing slightly separated from the crew. 

Gwen finishes calling roll, then asks everyone to take a seat at the little collection of tables stationed in front of a rolling whiteboard. It feels like a college classroom, but the atmosphere is fun yet professional. 

She grins once the company is seated, remaining standing in front of the whiteboard. “Happy first day of school,” she jokes, gesturing at the setup. There’s a resounding chuckle, and she continues. “But for real, we’re doing one of those first-day-of-school icebreakers. We’ll go around and each say our name, nickname if you have one, pronouns, position in the company, and something interesting about yourself. I’ll start.” 

She sets her tablet down, then pulls a chair over and sits facing everyone. “I’m Gwen Phasma, but just call me Phasma unless you want me to screw you over because I  _ can _ and  _ will _ do that.” Another laugh. It seems Phasma’s cutthroat personality is used when it’s needed as opposed to all the time, and the realization makes Rey smile. She’s always loved stage managers who are willing to be a bit fun when the team has time for it.

“I use she/her, and I’m your stage manager, though I hope you knew that. An interesting fact is that I graduated from  Pace here in New York,” she finishes.

Immediately, a loud boo comes from one of the back tables. “You said an  _ interesting _ fact!” Poe jeers teasingly.

Phasma rolls her eyes. “Fine,” she grunts, though her frustrated facade is betrayed by the smile she tries and fails to conceal. “I hate musicals, how about that?” A perfectly-groomed eyebrow cocks, and she catches Poe with a playful glare.

“Fine, I  _ guess _ ,” Poe whines.

Rey loves the atmosphere already.

“Now you,” Phasma says, pointing to Rose, who smiles contagiously.

“I’m Rose Tico, and I go by Rose and she/her. I’m props master so  _ don’t touch props that aren’t yours _ .” The last part comes out a near-snarl, and the crew laughs heartily, all understanding the trouble of keeping actors away from props, while the cast chuckles nervously. The angry act drops immediately, though, when she says, “And a fun fact about me is that I love computers! I built a PC this past summer.”

Rey throws Rose a fist-bump and the pair smile at each other. The PC was Rose’s baby, but she and Rey had worked together to pick out parts and assemble it. 

Phasma nods at Rey that it’s her turn, so she turns on her megawatt smile. “I’m Rey Niima, she/her, and you can call me Rey, even though some people call me Reybie, so you might hear that too, but Rey is what you’re  _ supposed to call me _ ,” she jabs, shooting glares at Rose and Kaydel, then winking. Rey refocuses, realizing that she’s ten seconds into her little speech and is  _ already _ rambling. “I’m sound designer, and I’m a foster kid from London.”

She gets nods and interested faces from different people around the room, and then they continue. Kaydel gives her spiel, telling everyone that she’s the costume designer and is bisexual “but mostly lesbian because men are trash-- no offense to present company,” as she explains it. Lucky for her, their “present company” seems more entertained than hurt by her comment.

Mitaka half-heartedly states that he’s the lighting designer and loves vacationing in Hawaii, even though the flight from New York with a layover at LAX isn’t much fun. Jannah is up next, identifying herself as their set designer and a Crossfit enthusiast. Her attitude is very “don’t fuck with me because I’ll fuck you up,” and Rey finds herself excited to get closer to the badass women on crew.

_ A majority-female crew,  _ she realizes,  _ that’s different. _

Then they move on to the cast. Poe, as expected, jokes his way through his introduction as Larry and a fan of the New York nightlife. Hux is playing Burton and is a playwright on the side, much like his character. Bazine is cast as Anna and used to model as a teenager.

Then it’s Ben’s turn. “I’m Benjamin Solo; I go by Ben and he/him. I’m playing Pale. And, uh, I help run a nonprofit called  _ First Order _ that funds theatre programs at schools in high-risk neighborhoods.”

Rey’s heart melts.

For a split second, she’s taken back to the suburb of London she grew up in. Jakku was a wasteland of unfinished public works projects and poverty, and both of the schools she attended lacked an arts program. The only classes available were half-assed, hour-long, once-weekly visits from the art teacher in elementary school. 

She wasn’t introduced to theatre until uni. One night, not too far into freshman year, her friends had dragged her out to see her university’s production of  _ Rent _ , and she had fallen in love. Spring of freshman year, she was officially transferred from physical therapy to theatre tech and design. Her first time working crew had been an entry-level sound assistant position for their production of  _ Almost, Maine _ , and the second the  sound designer showed her the ropes of operating the board, she knew she had found her calling.

It’s hard to imagine how much a theatre program could have changed her life if there was one in either of Jakku’s overcrowded and underfunded schools.

A well-placed, well-concealed elbow to her side breaks Rey out of her reverie. She turns to Rose, who’s looking at her intently.

_ What?  _ Rey mouths to her, confused by Rose’s actions.

Rose just rolls her eyes.  _ Later,  _ she mouths back, and Rey nods.

They finish up with their director, Rian Johnson, a Broadway and Hollywood legend, and the playwright, Ben Kenobi. The pair seem to be old friends, despite Rian being seemingly half Kenobi’s age. 

Rian takes over for Phasma, switching seats with the blonde. He keeps his bag with him and pulls out a dozen or so black folders. On the front, in elegant, sweeping handwriting, is the name of their play,  _ Burn This _ .

“These are your scripts,” Rian explains, motioning to the team to pass back the scripts as he hands them out. Soon, everyone is flipping through their copies. “This is a  revival , as you all should know, but thankfully we have Kenobi here,” he motions to the old man, “so he can show us where we have room to make some tweaks. It’s still set in the ‘80s, though.”

He stands up, grabbing a marker and writing on the board. When he turns around, he gestures to what he’s written: “Burn/This”. “We’ve stylized the title, too, so this is what will be in promotional materials, including the  Playbill .”

Rian moves back over to his chair, but instead of sitting, he flips through his script until it’s open to act one scene one. “Ready to start a  readthrough ?”

LATE FEBRUARY 2019

They have three weeks until previews start.

Rey is  _ stressed _ .

In a little more than a week, her primary sound operator, who’s incidentally also her best friend, will start coming to rehearsals to learn her design. Which means she has just over a week to get her design finished, and they’ve just moved into the Hudson Theatre. 

Day one at the theatre and she and the master electrician are running around the space. Rey is frantically pointing out the location of the speakers and monitors she wants placed, and, thankfully, the electrician seems to be getting everything.

However, for better or worse, being onstage and in the house for finalizing her design means she’s  _ incredibly _ close to Ben Solo when he comes onstage wearing a  _ fucking purple kimono _ .

“Kay!” he calls to his sister, who’s parked herself a few rows from the back of the ground floor of the house. 

She perks up and  _ cackles _ . “Love it!” 

He nods and pads back offstage, but Rey is still stuck on the fact that she just saw, like, ninety percent of Ben Solo’s thighs.

Luckily, she focuses back on the electrician before he notices she’s distracted. They finalize their plans (her equipment will be set up for rehearsal tomorrow), and as Rey hikes back up to the sound booth, she concocts a wonderful little scheme.

She arrives at the Hudson the next morning (on time, thank god), and gets to work. The night before, she had spent far too much time getting a few tracks on a flashdrive in  _ possibly _ less-than-legal ways, but they wouldn’t be used in the actual show, so she told herself it was fine.

Within minutes of her booting up the system, the tracks are programmed into her software. They’re in a separate folder from all of the actual  foley effects and whatnot because she  _ will _ accidentally play them when she’s testing out a sound effect if she’s not careful.

Later that day, her plan commences.

Just as planned, Ben comes onstage while various techs are tweaking things. They’re not rehearsing, so Rey takes the opportunity. The second she sees him, she hits play.

_ Bow chicka wow-wow… _

The distorted guitar echoes through the theatre, and there’s a pause. For that moment, Rey is scared she’s messed up massively.

However, thank the gods, everyone breaks into uncontrollable laughter mere seconds later. Everyone in the vicinity of the stage is full-on belly laughing, and even Ben seems to chuckle, though his cheeks are flushed cherry red.

Rey ducks under the table, hoping Ben doesn’t see that it’s her who cued the track.

Thankfully, she seems to evade detection and re-emerges from her hiding spot a minute or two later.

He just looked so damn  _ good _ in that kimono.

The next day, as the company is still preparing to  run act one , Ben comes onstage again, and Rey is  _ ready _ . 

As soon as he’s bathed in the stage lights, she hits play and the sax part of George Michael’s  _ Silent Whisper _ blasts from the sound system.

This time, she doesn’t duck. Instead, she stands behind the board, biting her lip and watching his reaction. Everyone who overheard is laughing again, and Ben covers his face with both hands. The shake in his shoulders gives him away though: he’s laughing. Goblin Rey cackles in delight.

When he uncovers his face, she can’t help but notice how his giant frame bathes in the warm lights.

She might be developing a show-crush.

Part of her is mortified, especially considering that the man in question is the male lead. But then she remembers that first interaction with him, the one in the elevator, and she tells herself that it’s okay, that he’s a good person. With that permission, her hindbrain resumes its thirsting.

**Author's Note:**

> lmk what you think <3 find me on [ twitter ](https://twitter.com/riiasshorts)   
> THEATRE TERMS:  
> -rehearsal hall: also known as a rehearsal studio, these are rental spaces that productions can rent out for the rehearsal process. they're used instead of the theatre where the show will be performed because a) it's cheaper and b) the theatre is usually either being used by another production or is under construction to prepare it for the incoming show  
> -concentric revolving floor/stage: this is the technical term for when a stage has two circles built into it, one inside of the other, that spin independently of each other. shows including hamilton and hadestown have used them.  
> -company: everyone working on a show, including the cast, crew, and production team  
> -production team: the directorial team, plus producers, stage managers, and other higher-up positions in a production  
> -Pace: a university in NYC with a well-renowned theatre program  
> -stage manager: the person who coordinates the entire production. usually, there are multiple, but i simplified it into one roll so it was less to understand  
> -props master: the person in charge of designing/buying/renting all of the props for the show, including handheld things and larger set props  
> -"don't touch props that aren't yours": this is something that's said more in amateur theatre, but essentially, there are some actors that are INCREDIBLE at misplacing or breaking props by messing around with them offstage, so everyone in a company is often told to just stay away from props unless they're told to use them  
> -gender issues in crew: being a technical field, professional crews are often majority-male, and a lot of women have stories of being put down based on nothing but gender.  
> -Rent: a musical that's very important to Broadway history about a friend group dealing with the AIDS epidemic in downtown New York  
> -Almost, Maine: a straight play (as in not a musical) that features several love stories that all take place over the same nine minutes in a little town in northern Maine nicknamed "Almost" because it was almost an official town on the map  
> -sound designer: the person in charge of setting up the sound system and figuring out how the sound of the entire show should be mixed and produced. the a1 (finn, in this fic) is also known as the first "op" and is the person who actually operates (hence "op") the soundboard during shows  
> -revival: when a show that has already been on broadway is revamped for another run of shows years after it was originally produced  
> -Playbill: programs but broadway and prettier  
> -readthrough: pretty much exactly what it sounds like- when the actors read their lines from the script, most often the first time they're given their scripts or the first time going through them as a team  
> -foley effects: sound effects that are used to simulate things that happen onstage but are usually produced and recorded using a different action (ex: often, sound designers will crunch up camera film, record it, and use that sound for when characters are walking through dry leaves)  
> -"run act one": when a company rehearses all of act one at the same time. in theatre, "running" usually means rehearsing


End file.
